Measha Brueggergosman

Since her Grand Prize victory at the 2002 Jeunesses Musicales Montreal International Competition, Measha Brueggergosman has come to be regarded as one of the leading sopranos from North America. She regularly appears on both the operatic and recital stages, and has recorded for major labels, including DG and Naxos. She was one of the soloists featured in the 2005 Naxos recording of Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience, which captured three Grammy awards. Critics and admirers alike hear her voice as beautiful and distinct, with a warm tone and youthful spirit. While much of her activity has been based in Canada in performances with the Montreal, Toronto, and National Arts Centre Orchestras, she has made acclaimed appearances with the Cincinnati Opera, the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and at the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn. Her repertory is broad, taking in works by Beethoven, Berlioz, Verdi, Puccini, Schoenberg, Gershwin, Barber, and many others. Measha Brueggergosman was born in Fredericton, Canada, on June 28, 1977. She sang in the choir of her local church as a child, and in her teens studied at Boston Conservatory during the summers. Advanced studies were at the University of Toronto and the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany. Brueggergosman's first major appearance was as Beatrice in the 1998 world premiere of the James Rolfe opera Beatrice Chancy. It garnered a spate of rave reviews and was filmed in 2000 for broadcast on Canadian television. After winning prizes in several prestigious competitions Brueggergosman won the aforementioned Jeunesses Musicales in 2002, which sent her career on a meteoric rise, with offers for major recordings and operatic and concert appearances throughout the U.S. and Europe. That same year she debuted at the Cincinnati Opera in Strauss' Elektra and made further appearances there in Turandot and Jake Heggie's opera Dead Man Walking. Brueggergosman's first recording was issued in 2004 on the CBC label, a compilation of songs by Barber, Copland, and Gershwin. Further (highly successful) recordings followed and led to a contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2007. The following year she won the Juno award for Best Classical Album for her first DG recording, Surprise, a song collection featuring works by Schoenberg, Satie, and Bolcom. Based in Toronto, where she lives with her husband/manager Markus Bruegger (her maiden name is Gosman), she has served as host of her own television show there, Toronto Sings.